Los Alamos Monitor: Delegates visit to celebrate MPNHP

Heather McClenahan, who is executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society and served as the county’s point person during efforts to enact the legislation, was the emcee for Saturday’s event.

McClenahan described the 11th hour push for passage after learning that the bill was dead, “Our partners got on the phone, hit the halls in D.C. We called, we emailed, we probably whined a little bit,” McClenahan said.

Bingaman first introduced the bill in 2004. He credited local community’s efforts in keeping the bill alive.

“Washington has a thousand things happening any day of the week, and the things that get attention are the things that people care about, and this community cared about this,” Bingaman said.

Bingaman also acknowledged the current congressional delegation’s success.

“The general dysfunction in Washington puts a high priority on being creative if you want to get anything done, and they had to be creative,” Bingaman said, describing how the delegation took advantage of a “very narrow window of opportunity” to get a public lands bill attached to the National Defense Authorization Act.

Udall acknowledged that this was not “classic legislating” as described in civics books. The amount of local support was a big contributing factor to the efforts.

“The thing that excites me about this job is days like this, when I reflect on being in New Mexico and having people so engaged and so involved, taking your energy and taking your inspiration and going to Washington and getting something done,” Udall said.

According to Udall, the Manhattan Project “truly changed the world.”

“It is an epic story with great consequences, a story we are still trying to fully understand. It’s a complicated story, and I think we’re going to be able to explain this through this historical park so the rest of the world really understands it,” Udall said. “The historical park makes sure that story gets told.”

Udall met with U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell before coming to Los Alamos, who assured him that both the National Park Service (NPS) and the Department of Energy were “in gear.”

“This thing is rolling and is going to happen very quickly.” Udall said.
McClenahan acknowledged Heinrich’s efforts in particular during the last minute push to save the legislation.

“Some politicians earn the title of ‘Mr. or Mrs. No,’” McClenahan said. “But I think we may want to start calling Senator Martin Heinrich ‘Mr. Won’t Take No for an Answer’ when it comes to legislation that is important to New Mexico.”
Heinrich called passage of the legislation an “incredible testament” to the efforts of the community and the Los Alamos Historical Society.

“At a time that we had gotten sign-off from the chair and from ranking members of all those committees — I can tell you I’ve never seen that in the short time I’ve been in Washington, D.C. — to think that we did all of that and were going to let this slip away, no way,” Heinrich said. “And thanks to all of you we were able to pry that window back open and get this done.”

Heinrich also noted that in context the 10-year effort achieved results at “light speed,” pointing out that that legislation to place the Valles Caldera National Preserve under the auspices of NPS was first introduced in the 1960s.

The caldera also received national park designation in the 2014 public lands bill.

McClenahan noted that Heinrich has just been appointed Democratic ranking member of the National Parks Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“Of course, that means our expectations are now very high for park funding,” she added.

Luján focused on the many stories that need to be told about the Manhattan Project beyond those of the physicists and scientists.

“There were so many people from surrounding communities, in and around Los Alamos, that maintained the operations of this secret lab, that prepared the meals, that cleaned the halls, that stocked and ordered that paper…the story needs to be all-encompassing,” Luján said. “This is an example of how democracy truly works, when people can come together and do not give up and make sure that their voices will not be forgotten. And their voices will not be forgotten.”

Chair Kristin Henderson represented the Los Alamos County Council.
“I really believe, and most of the council does, too, this will be a real sea of change for Los Alamos,” Henderson said. “When you have 100,000 or 200,000 people coming to your community in the course of a year, the opportunities for us to leverage that in terms of the economic development is somewhat overwhelming.”

Henderson called the Manhattan Project’s accomplishment “one of those milestones in human history.”

“One of the things I’m appreciative of is that this will be a national park, because one of the things our National Parks do so well is acknowledge complicated stories, and this is a complicated story,” Henderson said.

According to Los Alamos Chamber of Commerce Manager Nancy Partridge, the chamber and the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation view the park as “a new tool in its pocket for diversifying the economy,” bringing a demand for hotel rooms, restaurant tables and retail merchandise.
“Imagine the impact of 200,000 tourists a year spending between $73 and $225 per person in Los Alamos in hotels, restaurants and retail shops,” Partridge said. “That’s almost $30 million dollars a year in new money coming into the cash registers of local small businesses.”

Partridge pointed out an additional benefit. “Los Alamos is no longer a one company town with its economy tied to one industry. They used to say that when the lab sneezed, Los Alamos caught a cold. This was the vaccine we needed. From now on, when the lab sneezes, Los Alamos gets the sniffles.”
Bandelier National Park Superintendent Jason Lott, who is part of a national group working out the nuts and bolts of creating the park, just returned from meetings in Washington, D.C., between NPS and DOE.

“Each of those meetings were just full of excitement, full of commitment and just ready to go,” Lott said.

Lott spoke about the challenges of finding a “common language” between the two agencies for such things as what visitor access and visitor experience means.

“And this is important, because we’re trying to set a park up for perpetuity. This isn’t a five-year plan we’re talking about. This is 100 years, 200 years, we’re going to be talking about the Manhattan Project, and it’s going to be a national park,” Lott said. “So we’re going to do it right, and we’re going to take our time and make sure that we set everybody up for success in moving forward.”

Lott also pointed out that Los Alamos needs time to prepare for an influx of visitors.

“What we don’t want to do is put impacts on our community that are actually going to impact the quality of our life,” Lott said. “So we want to think through everything we’re doing here, and we’re going to have a great community, a great national park, and I think it’s going to be a good time to be a member of the Los Alamos community.”